Study on Properties Prediction and Braiding Optimization of Axial Braided Carbon/Carbon Composite

It is well established that the microstructure has significant effects on the properties of axial braided C/C composites. In this study, a method coupling the homogenization method and finite element method (FEM) was proposed to predict the relationship between the microstructure characteristics and macroscopic properties. Based on the representative volume element (RVE) model, the periodic displacement boundary condition was introduced to predict the equivalent elastic properties of the RVE and component of C/C composite material, and the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the material was predicted by the energy prediction method. The predicted results were in good agreement with experimental results. By predicting the thermal and mechanical properties of the materials with different braiding spacing and fiber rod diameter, the variation of the properties with braiding spacing and fiber rod diameter was obtained. The research methods and results in this paper could provide important references for the optimization and rational application of composite materials.